designed in dorset

Realtime Final Project - Earthquake Ferrofluid Development

More research and planning was done today on the Realtime final project coming up with ideas and adding things to the shopping list! We found a motor shield and 4 dc motors which as I’ll explain in a bit is an option. “What about the stepper motors?!” I hear you cry - well the down side of using stepper motors is that we would only be able to use 2 as they use more sockets/power and wires.

With dc motors we can get it to constantly spin with a magnet placed onto an attached wooden wheel for a constant pulse effect, stronger earthquakes will pulse faster vice versa , which would be a more visually stimulating project end result. But Simon gave us another idea. If we took apart 4 clocks we could use the preciseness of the second hand on a slight tilt to create a near/far effect, so the Ferrofluid will spike more or less depending on the strength of the earthquake. We will speak to Hannah when she is available to see what she thinks would be better. I am torn, as I both like the increasing pulsation depending on the strength of the earthquakes but also really like the closer/further away effect on the Ferrofluid!